Congressional Junkets to Israel

By Stephen Lendman - Posted on 13 August 2011

Congressional Junkets to Israel - by Stephen Lendman

Eighty-one House members, one fifth of the chamber, will visit Israel during the traditional summer recess, instead of addressing festering local issues at home during the nation's gravest economic crisis too serious to ignore.

Arriving first were 26 Democrats together, including Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (MD). Another 55 Republicans will follow in two groups, including 47 freshmen.

Heading each are House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (VA) and House Whip Kevin McCarthy (CA). Spouses are also going at an estimated cost of $8,000, including business-class flights, first-class hotels, meals, transportation, side trips, guides and incidentals.

Red carpet treatment is assured along with considerable pro-Israeli messaging, especially for new incoming freshmen. They'll meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, as well as PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah. Legitimate Hamas leaders are excluded.

Their entire week is choreographed and full, from early morning to late evening, including breakfast and dinner speakers, as well as meetings with other government officials.

For security reasons, their schedule isn't known, but while there, they'll get walking tours of Jerusalem's Old City, the Western Wall (Wailing Wall or Kotel), as well as visits to Masada, the Dead Sea, Holocaust memorial, Golan, Lebanese border, and Tel Aviv, with moments to relax by the Mediterranean.

Most of all, they'll get intensive pro-Israeli messaging to assure one-sided support, reinforced by party leaders back home. At the same time, out of sight and mind will be:

-- Israel's Separation Wall, stealing about 12% of Palestinian land when completed; and

-- severe repression, poverty, and misery of millions of Palestinians whose only offense is not being Jewish.

Whether or not they know or care, If Americans Knew Executive Director Alison Weir said not every congressional member is enthused about going. One congressional wife, in fact, who's been there before, said she and her husband never before experienced such pressure.

Another representative's staff member said those invited had no choice. If they don't go, AIPAC will target them for removal, and most likely succeed. "The staffer said that the Israel Lobby is far too powerful to ignore and that American voters have no knowledge of what's going on" because major media reports won't say.

In contrast, it was practically ignored by America's corporate media, including The New York Times. The Washington Post discussed it on page 13, omitting important details.

It's typical of how America's media diss their regulars, excluding everything they most need to know.

At issue is why congressional members are in Israel or heading there shortly, on expense-paid week-long junkets, funded by an AIPAC affiliate - the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF).

Created in 1990, its web site says it "provides grant monies to educate opinion leaders about the US-Israel relationship, to expand public awareness about issues affecting the Middle East and to encourage participation in public affairs, especially by students on college campuses where anti-Israeli propaganda is rampant."

In fact, nowhere in the world is pro-Israeli propaganda more scandalously intense than in America, especially from distorted one-sided major media reports, leaving Palestinian issues entirely excluded.

Mondoweiss co-editor Philip Weiss said pro-Israeli "liberal foundations" fund organizations like AIPAC and its AIEF spinoff. For example, the Kimmel Center gave AIEF $3.5 million in recent years, according to its Form 990 filings.

Weiss said his research "shows that AIEF is getting tons of money from the same people who fund good liberal institutions," including universities, the arts, and issue-oriented groups like the Center for Reproductive Rights and ACLU.

AIEF also gets generous contributions from right-wing organizations. "And that's the point," says Weiss. "When you" examine who's paying for one-fifth of the House to visit Israel, it's coming from rich and powerful pro-Israeli foundations, "know(ing) which side their bread is buttered on," wanting Congress in tow supporting them.

At a time when millions of Americans are in dire need, Weir noted how angry they might be to learn that Congress gives tiny Israel "over $8 million per day of American tax money" during the nation's greatest ever economic Depression when all available resources should stay at home helping them and ending it.

It's why everyone needs alternative sources to stay informed and join the fight for justice. It's the only way possible to get it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Next week, I will be traveling to Israel as a member of a Congressional delegation that will meet with senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss the security situation in the Middle East.

As Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, I’ve held hearings that examine the unrest in the Middle East and its implications for American antiterrorism efforts, as well as the threat posed by Hezbollah, a terrorist group sponsored by Iran. I look forward to discussing these issues with our Israeli allies and reaffirming our commitment to winning the worldwide fight against terrorism."

Be sure to check out the 106 comments from "WE THE PEOPLE" . . . that feel our elected officials should serve America FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD . . . not ISRAEL or World Zionism.

And those of us that want to know why the "Chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence" would be going to the country that is SUSPECT #1 for 9-11 for any reason other than to arrest folks like Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and all those "Dancing Israelis" arrested on 9-11 in vans that either tested positive for EXPLOSIVES or were packed with EXPLOSIVES that were magically and quietly returned to Israel by dual Israeli citizen Michael "TSA Frying Your DNA" Chertoff.

Of course, we see that Congressman Dr. Ron Paul is NOT going to Israel to pledge loyalty to Theodor Herzl's "Zionist World Order" of Noahide "Bankster" Law . . . (ask the Palestinians how that is working out for THEM!!!) . .

I guess that is why our Zio-Media Monopoly that has set itself up as the new "Politruk" on the Rupert "Poison Pen Of Zion" Murdoch model is giving Congressman Dr. Ron Paul the "Blotting Out Haman" treatment . . . even after tying for first place in the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday. . . . ;-)

And racist World Zionism is the antithesis of everything this Great Constitutional Republic is based upon.

"I'm gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacationI'm gonna take my problem to the United NationsWell I called my congressman and he said quote,'I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote'Sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna doBut there ain't no cure for the summertime blues"

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